IGN Movies' Oscar Picks

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UPDATED: How did we do with our predictions?

By IGN Movies

It's that time again -- Oscar time -- where, depending on your particular persuasion, you either get highly annoyed or highly thrilled (or both) by the plastic celebration of the Hollywood elite. Yaaaayyyy! Rich people giving each other awards!

Listen, you know love it and so do we. So that means it's time again for us to put forth our picks and predictions for this year's ceremony. Here's how this will go: We'll be predicting not just who we think will win but we'll also be filling you in on which films we think deserve to win. Amazingly enough, many of our picks this year are actually tracking with what we think the Academy is going to go with. We must be getting old!

Also, keep in mind that we'll be updating this feature with the results as the winners are announced on Sunday night, so check back during the broadcast and find out how we did…

UPDATE: For those of you scoring at home, we finished up 11-4. That's the same number we did last year!

While Serious Actor Sean Penn might end up squeaking out a win for his role as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in California, Hollywood does love a good comeback story. And who's had a better comeback lately than Mickey Rourke? So far all indications have pointed to Rourke taking home the statue on Sunday night, and plus his beloved little Chihuahua just died earlier this week. Come on, people, now you've got to give it to him!

Besides, Rourke's turn as the title character in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is the rightful winner anyway. Here's what IGN had to say about his performance in our original review of the film: "It is a revelation, a career resuscitator, a full immersion into the character's bulky, battle-scarred skin. Rourke simply is Randy the Ram; his performance is about behavior and not showiness, and his physical transformation shows the full commitment he made to the role."

It's not just because he's dead that Ledger should and will win this award. It's because no one else this year came close to etching such an indelible screen performance as the actor did in his turn as the maniacal Joker in The Dark Knight.

When he was prepping for the role, Ledger told us that he had "a few tricks up his sleeve," and he wasn't joking (pun intended). The scarred face with the smeared make-up, the oily hair and receding hairline, the willingness to put on a nurse's uniform for a deadly prank… these were all just the outer indications of this new Joker's persona. But Ledger's finer touches -- the hunched gait, the licking of his lips, the insane laugh that there's nothing funny about -- are the stuff that makes his Joker the superhero-movie character that all actors in the genre will aspire to match in the coming years.

In the words of our own Jim Vejvoda, "The town loves her and it's her year. 'Nuff said."

We agree, Jim, but let's elaborate a bit anyway for those of our readers in the cheap seats. Winslet, who last month won the Golden Globe twice for Revolutionary Road and The Reader, has been snubbed time and again at the Oscars (six nominations and no wins to date). Sure, she's going up against the veteran Meryl Streep from the nasty nun drama Doubt, but her work in both of these films, plus her overall career achievement and her increasing status as one of the greats in her field, means that she'll likely be giving teary-eyed thanks on Sunday. Also, all that nakedness in The Reader can't hurt her chances, right? Just ask the perpetually nude, Oscar-winning Helen Mirren.